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> Oh, and good luck. Despite the bullying and other inconveniences, Twitter remains an intriguing world for the social explorer. 11 years later and that messag

> Oh, and good luck. Despite the bullying and other inconveniences, Twitter remains an intriguing world for the social explorer. 11 years later and that message might finally lose its relevance. Despite Twitter's numerous faults, in my eyes, it was always an interesting platform where you could find something to look at/read, even if it was often in the form of a link to another platform. Now, with a ton of people feeling fed up and choosing to leave, it's going to lose the one thing that made it good (and, other times, bad) - its user base. A shame if it does, Twitter is an essential part of the Internet's history.

sedeki 4y ago
Is a ton of people really leaving Twitter? It seems more like a political statement by certain people (that's not necessarily acted upon).
- mikkergp 4y ago
  > Is a ton of people really leaving Twitter? Probably too early to tell. Early reports have it at like a million which would be a drop in the bucket. I don’t think Twitter would die just because Elon took over, the question is will his changes overall slowly improve the site or slowly degrade it for “most people” whatever that means, the hard part for Elon is the least sticky twitter users may also be the least vocal. He could listen to everyone and still lose a large swath of users for reasons he doesn’t understand.
- brodouevencode 4y ago
  There are a lot of people fake leaving (read: rage posting about how they are going to leave but not actually following through) Twitter mainly because of Musk's buyout. Mastodon seems to be the new home for a lot of these people. While I'm sure some will leave and stay gone, Twitter has too much inertia going for it that is desirable to most users: centrality and reach, ease of use, by-proxy ad platform, to name a few. Some things like search and monetization need a lot of work, and from what I've gathered by Musk's tweets these two are at or near the top of the list to be fixed. In order for Twitter to fail at this point there's too much human behavior that would have to change. There are a ton of people out there touting Mastodon as a replacement, but I just don't think that's going to happen.
- nemo44x 4y ago
  > Is a ton of people really leaving Twitter? I've heard that a ton of people have actually joined over the last week. Net new users apparently.
  - Volundr 4y ago
    Source for this?
    - nemo44x 4y ago
      https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/7/23445476/elon-musk-twitter-user-growth-all-time-high-advertisers https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/7/23445476/elon-musk-twitte...
- TobyTheDog123 4y ago
  For the same reason that conservatives never succeeded in leaving Twitter for their own platform (Gab/Gettr/Parler/TruthSocial), progressives will also be unable to shake their addiction to the blue bird. Sure, some will leave, but alternate platforms will never come close to even Twitter's tiny numbers.
- teeray 4y ago
  It honestly feels the same as when people were up in arms about Facebook’s privacy and Diaspora was the big open source FB killer. The loudest people may be leaving Twitter for now, but I doubt it will be the death of the platform.
- Ekaros 4y ago
  I have yet seen nothing that would make the average consumer to leave. Or people using it for marketing posts. But depending how things change it might happen.
mikkergp 4y ago
> A shame if it does, Twitter is an essential part of the Internet's history. A big thing I think that’s unanalyzed in our age of punditry and hot takes is — what is it about imperfect systems that is successful. Everyone sees the huge problems with imperfect systems, and yet, as bad as twitter is, it seems hard to imagine a product that is much better without fundamentally changing what Twitter is.
danaris 4y ago
Twitter is an essential part of the Internet's history. Yahoo! Answers is an essential part of the Internet's history. MySpace is an essential part of the Internet's history. GeoCities is an essential part of the Internet's history. AOL is an essential part of the Internet's history. The important thing is not to ensure that no part of the Internet's essential history ever dies—it is to ensure it is chronicled and archived. Support the Internet Archive https://archive.org/donate https://archive.org/donate
joshspankit 4y ago
I’m so surprised when people make statements that have this at their core: “people’s habits change slowly over time and have huge momentum”. If Twitter changed it’s tech stack and became a genuinely better platform, they could gain those million users back almost instantly. People are not semi trucks: they’re making choices moment to moment.

sedeki 4y ago

Is a ton of people really leaving Twitter? It seems more like a political statement by certain people (that's not necessarily acted upon).

mikkergp 4y ago
> Is a ton of people really leaving Twitter? Probably too early to tell. Early reports have it at like a million which would be a drop in the bucket. I don’t think Twitter would die just because Elon took over, the question is will his changes overall slowly improve the site or slowly degrade it for “most people” whatever that means, the hard part for Elon is the least sticky twitter users may also be the least vocal. He could listen to everyone and still lose a large swath of users for reasons he doesn’t understand.
brodouevencode 4y ago
There are a lot of people fake leaving (read: rage posting about how they are going to leave but not actually following through) Twitter mainly because of Musk's buyout. Mastodon seems to be the new home for a lot of these people. While I'm sure some will leave and stay gone, Twitter has too much inertia going for it that is desirable to most users: centrality and reach, ease of use, by-proxy ad platform, to name a few. Some things like search and monetization need a lot of work, and from what I've gathered by Musk's tweets these two are at or near the top of the list to be fixed. In order for Twitter to fail at this point there's too much human behavior that would have to change. There are a ton of people out there touting Mastodon as a replacement, but I just don't think that's going to happen.
nemo44x 4y ago
> Is a ton of people really leaving Twitter? I've heard that a ton of people have actually joined over the last week. Net new users apparently.
- Volundr 4y ago
  Source for this?
  - nemo44x 4y ago
    https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/7/23445476/elon-musk-twitter-user-growth-all-time-high-advertisers https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/7/23445476/elon-musk-twitte...
TobyTheDog123 4y ago
For the same reason that conservatives never succeeded in leaving Twitter for their own platform (Gab/Gettr/Parler/TruthSocial), progressives will also be unable to shake their addiction to the blue bird. Sure, some will leave, but alternate platforms will never come close to even Twitter's tiny numbers.
teeray 4y ago
It honestly feels the same as when people were up in arms about Facebook’s privacy and Diaspora was the big open source FB killer. The loudest people may be leaving Twitter for now, but I doubt it will be the death of the platform.
Ekaros 4y ago
I have yet seen nothing that would make the average consumer to leave. Or people using it for marketing posts. But depending how things change it might happen.

mikkergp 4y ago

> A shame if it does, Twitter is an essential part of the Internet's history. A big thing I think that’s unanalyzed in our age of punditry and hot takes is — what is it about imperfect systems that is successful. Everyone sees the huge problems with imperfect systems, and yet, as bad as twitter is, it seems hard to imagine a product that is much better without fundamentally changing what Twitter is.

danaris 4y ago

Twitter is an essential part of the Internet's history. Yahoo! Answers is an essential part of the Internet's history. MySpace is an essential part of the Internet's history. GeoCities is an essential part of the Internet's history. AOL is an essential part of the Internet's history. The important thing is not to ensure that no part of the Internet's essential history ever dies—it is to ensure it is chronicled and archived. Support the Internet Archive https://archive.org/donate https://archive.org/donate

joshspankit 4y ago

I’m so surprised when people make statements that have this at their core: “people’s habits change slowly over time and have huge momentum”. If Twitter changed it’s tech stack and became a genuinely better platform, they could gain those million users back almost instantly. People are not semi trucks: they’re making choices moment to moment.